Thursday’s thumbs

Fairly safe start to school year is welcome

Time for another installment of our (almost) weekly thumbs:

We’re almost two weeks into the new school year in these parts and we don’t recall hearing word of any bus wrecks or accidents involving young pedestrians as they march toward or home from the school house. That’s great news. We can remember years where the reintroduction of K-12 students into the morning and afternoon traffic mix has led to collisions. Thanks to all out there who have done their best to remain alert about all the transportation mechanisms involved in the operation of public schools. Now, the trick is to remain alert throughout the school year.

We knew the moment we heard a Northwest Arkansas mayor had been slapped with a defamation lawsuit that it was probably going to involve someone in Cave Springs. In the merry-go-round that is small-town political turmoil in Northwest Arkansas, it’s been Cave Springs’ turn to ride for quite a while now. Isn’t it interesting that the city’s recorder-treasurer, Kimberly Hutcheson, sued Mayor Travis Lee on the same day he filed to run for re-election? That’s not to say the case either has or lacks merit. It’s just interesting timing. The poor folks who live in Cave Springs just have to watch the circus go on.

Who spends a big chunk of cash on technology only to shelve it for use a few years after its purchase? It appears that’s what the University of Arkansas, south of Springdale and north of Greenland, has done with a high-tech parking management system originally slated for use in 2017. Now, school officials say the system won’t be used until 2019 at the earliest because the college needs to “focus its technical resources” on a planned overhaul of human resources, payroll and other administrative computer systems. Two or three years’ delay on implementing a technological project is a long, long time, especially when the project has cost $317,000 so far. Technology is practically outdated these days by the time it reaches consumers. A spokesman for the firm that delivered the system even notes equipment two or three years old “will certainly be less effective” than up-to-date equipment, but will still be usable. Well, let’s be thankful for that, we guess. It’s certainly not the first time, nor will it be the last, that parking at the UA campus in Fayetteville contributed to tardiness.

A woman used profane language as she posted on social media in celebration of her acceptance into a NASA internship. It’s was one of those entirely misplaced, unnecessary utterances of foul language too common in today’s corrosive culture. So a gentleman named Homer Hickam replied with one word: “Language.” The woman doubled down, crudely insulting Hickam with a profane suggestion as to what he should do. She justified her language choice by repeating “I’m working at NASA,” apparently in the mistaken belief Hickam was trying to mute her celebration. Hickam stuck to the facts when he replied simply: “And I’m on the National Space Council that oversees NASA,” said the former NASA engineer. The woman has shut down her social media account for the moment, but we can imagine what she might have uttered when NASA informed her she no longer had that internship. Hickam said he just wanted to warn the young lady because he thought some at NASA might not appreciate her word choices in the context of her internship. That was apparently an understatement. Argue all day long that the woman had every right to say whatever she wanted on social media, and you’d be right. But many of us could benefit from understanding that our choices matter and they have repercussions. If it’s possible to earn a job with judgment and professional demeanor, it’s just as possible to lose one for a lack of it.